Sweet 16 for USU's Men's Basketball Team? No Problem

Utah State University has already made it to the Sweet Sixteen when it takes on 17th-ranked Washington Thursday night in San Diego in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

USU’s Graduation Success Rate (GSR) places it in the top 16 of all 65 NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams competing this year.

 

Sweet.

 

“USU student-athletes have consistently scored high in academics,” said USU Executive Vice President and Provost Raymond Coward. “In our first semester in the Western Athletic Conference, the classroom performances of our student-athletes were among the best in the conference. Our coaches and our student-athletes should be congratulated for their commitment to excellence in the classroom and on the field. Together they make us ‘Aggie Proud.’”

 

Utah State’s 80 percent graduation success rate places it in the company of 15 other schools that scored an 80 percent or higher, including Bucknell, Florida, Illinois, Villanova, Davidson, Pacific, Indiana, Washington, Marquette, Xavier, North Carolina (Wilmington), U.S. Air Force, George Mason, North Carolina and Belmont.

 

“I am very proud of our student-athletes,” said Randy Spetman, USU athletic director. “All of our programs stress academics first. Stew is a great example of a coach who emphasizes the importance of academics.”

 

Based on the GSR, 41 teams, or 64 percent of the total, graduated at least 50 percent of its basketball student-athletes, according to a report from the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida in its annual study, “Keeping Score When it Counts: Graduation Rates for 2006 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament Teams.”

 

The GSR, a snapshot of four-year graduation rates of its student athletes, is one method of tracking an athlete’s academic progress in the classroom at NCAA member institutions, said Brian Evans, associate athletic director with student athlete services at USU.

 

Earlier this month, the NCAA announced that it will replace graduation rates with Academic Progress Rates (APR). But according to Central Florida’s study, the NCAA is probably two years away from having enough data for the APRs to be most useful.

 

Evans said the APR score for Utah State came in at 932. This number reflects a statistical adjustment that takes into account a small sample size of data due to the newness of this tracking system. He said APR concentrates on eligibility and retention of student-athletes. Teams must score 925 or higher in a two-year compiled score.

 

This is Utah State’s second straight NCAA Tournament appearance and fifth in the last seven years under head coach Stew Morrill. USU is in its 101st season of basketball.